You’ve spent a lifetime learning to play piano. What skills of your own made you an excellent piano teacher that you pass on to your own students?
When teaching my students, I always ask them to create their own story of the piece from the very first moment they listen to it. The more they practice, the more details they should discover about the story and based on that, they can decide what kinds of sounds they want to play for that music passage. I usually ask my students to listen and experiment with different ways of playing: There are always more than one way to play forte!
In order to create different sounds, they will then need to have proper technique and enough knowledge to interpret. So that is when practicing techniques and learning music history will be beneficial.
Students often ask, “how long should I practice?” Knowing this is dependent on age and skill level, what answers do you usually give?
I always encourage my students to establish the habit of practicing right from the first lesson. They can start with just 10 to 15 minutes per day and build their time up, and keep up with the consistency. For me, I always think that practice effectively is more important. Students should set a goal for each time they practice, it can be just a small, difficult section that they try to overcome. At the end of the session, if they can accomplish their goal, that will be a good practice.
Now that more and more students are returning to in-person lessons, what improvements do you notice with students who’ve returned compared to how they learned and practiced during their time online?
I think my students are a lot more independent when it comes to reading. When doing online lessons, they need to follow the notes and dynamics on their own and that good habits transfer very well to in-person lessons. I also notice that they need to do the dynamics with more contrast so Zoom can pick up the difference, and that is what I always try to tell my students to do before.